Bangkok Sightseeing

There are many places in Bangkok were great views of the city can be enjoyed. Sure, the skyline isn’t like New York or Hong Kong – but that only adds to it’s beauty, because you still have so much space in between the highrise buildings.

When you try to memorize the look of some buildings, they will help you to become great orientation points in the city too on your Bangkok sightseeing tours.

The Erawan museum in Bangkok is an interesting place to visit. It’s famous for the three-headed elephant.

Actually, it is not really located in Bangkok, but in Samut Prakan, but that’s so close to Bangkok that it can easily be visited on a day trip.

The whole thing is 29 meters high, weights 250 tons and is 36 meters long.

And it’s a labour of love. It took almost a decade to be completed. It was Lek Viriyapant, an unusual businessman, who created this museum.

If you are interested in Thai mythology, this is a great place to visit. Because each of the levels represents a different area of the Thai cosmos. There are lots of antiques and religious iconography to be found. Mister Lek Viriyapant was an avid collector of Asian antiques, which can now be found within the museum.

Well, Bangkok surely isn’t the most beautiful place to go diving. Consider the many tropical islands and coral reefs in the ocean right off the coast from Thailand, and you might wonder: why would ANYONE want to dive in Bangkok?

Well, maybe someone who has never dived before and isn’t yet comfortable with the thought of being in the ocean with that new, strange, foreign equipment.

In Bangkok, you can get started with diving equipment in the safety of a nice, save swimming pool. There are several diving schools in Bangkok that you can try out.

If you crave Japanese food in Bangkok, there are plenty of places to check out.

Soi Thaniya in the infamous Patpong district off Silom Road is one of these places where you find lots of Japanese restaurants (and ominous bars) in one small soi.

It’s also known as “little Tokyo”, and there’s a small shop with very good sashimi. When you come from Silom Road and walk up, you find it on the right handsite – right next to a Japanese grill restaurant (which is also not too bad and more budget friendly by Japanese standards). Looking at it from the outside: grey granite walls, wooden slide-door, blue curtain in front of it. Forgot the name, but it’s yummy.

The Sidney Morning Herald recently published an article on Thai food, and how it’s going into the “fine dining category” in Thailand:

Thais believe their food should be shared, preferably on a makeshift table flanking a busy road, or at a hole-in-the-wall shop, with as many friends as the love, beer and laughter will allow. While fine-dining Thai restaurants exist in Bangkok – and in some cases are very good – they are usually for tourists.

Well – that’s not so accurate actually. Thai’s don’t believe their food should be shared on a makeshift table flanking a busy road – that’s just a thing of convenience and affordability.

There are plenty of places were well-off Thais go to enjoy high-quality Thai food in luxurious surroundings.

It’s just a matter of fact that a lot of people who earn maybe 20000 baht a month don’t want to spend 5000 baht for a dinner, but rather prefer to go for a 25 baht meal. The ambience may not be as beautiful, but the food can be just as tasty.

The Happy Monday Bar is a place in Ekkamai, Soi 10. They’ve got good tunes and nice people.

Happy Monday Bar Bangkok

Good place to relax and have some fun. It’s easy to meet friendly people there.

Here’s how the Happy Monday bar describes itself on their MySpace page:

I am a happy bar. I am a bastard child of Blue’s Bar and Gigroceries. I am closed on Monday. I am where Opening Soon used to be (Ekamai Soi 10). I will slowly be renovated. I love music. I love people. I love you.

If you want to know the kind of music they play there, you might also want to check out their myspace page 🙂

Happy Monday Bar Bangkok

Great place to spend your night after a day of sightseeing in Bangkok and mingle with the local crowd.

Opening hours: daily 7pm – late (Sundays closed)

Phone: 02 714 3953

Photocredits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kunoan/4329993284/,

Niu’s on Silom is a Jazz-Blues Bar and Restaurant, opened daily from 5pm to 1am. There are daily lve performances by both international and Thai musicians.

Niu's on Silom Jazz Bar

The food is good, the service very attentive and friendly. It’s not a budget place, but they have good international food here and if you want to spoil yourself a bit, it’s a good place to go.

The Concerto Restaurant on the second floor is run by Marco Cammarata, who’s a very experienced and well-known Italian chef with a true passion for food.

And here’s a shot from the interior:

Nui's On Silom Bangkok

You can check out their website at: http://www.niusonsilom.com

Photocredits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtjfernandez/4963979357/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/10376645@N02/3067743208/

Sanam Luang is a popular place where events take place throughout the year in Bangkok. It’s an open field, located right in the heart of the old town of Bangkok, Ko Rattanakosin, next to the Grand Palace.

Around March, you can see lots of people flying kites here.

There are also many royal ceremonies that take place here, like the Ploughing Ceremony in May. This is a Brahmin ceremony that is meant to ensure a good rice harvest.

As of now, it’s not accessible, because military engineers work on it’s landscaping. But if everything goes according to plan, it will re-open in April 2011.

They are installing a water drainage system and electric lines underground, and they are building a 30 meter road and footpath in the park, paved with cement tiles. They are also creating two hills on the left and right side of the park.

The renovation of the park costs around 181 million baht, and if things go as planned, will take 300 days. Thus, it should be ready by April 26, in time for the Royal Ploughing Ceremony in May. 200 military engineers are involved in this project.

There used to be a problem: the military relocated thousands of pigeons that lived here. There were quiet a few people making a living from selling bird food here. Of course they were not happy when the birds got relocated – but instead, the military troops have supplied them with carts from which they can now sell soft drinks or fruit.

Many Thai people enjoy kite flying a lot, and you can often watch them doing it in the Sanam Luang Park near the Grand Palace, in the old part of town.

Nowadays, kite flying is just a hobby that people do for the fun of it.

But in the past, kites were used for more serious purposes. In the early Thai kingdom of Sukhothai (1240-1438) kites were used as war weapons. They were filled with gunpowder and long fuses where attached to frighten and hurt their enemies.

There were also spiritual kites for the use in Brahmin rituals – these kites were called ngao. Their heads were shaped like bamboo bows, and the string would create a loud, vibrating noise when it flew up high in the winds. This noise was meant to scare away evil spirits.

Today, some farmers still use kites that make noise – not to scare away spirits, but to scare away birds.

In another period of Thai history, the Ayutthaya period (1351-1767) kites were used for decorative purposes for royal ceremonies. These dragons were beautifully shaped and carried ornamental lamps and had jingling bells attached to them.

It was King Rama V who then made it into a popular sport – and nowadays, between February and April, there are many contests taking place in different parts of Thailand.

Photocredits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyrilleandres/4335385564/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/robhaigh/2504286708/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/26644336@N06/4276842834/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyrilleandres/4336985316/